Enhanced interactive rubrics that use percentages, points, a point range, or no points, and weight categories;

The Needs Grading tool in the Grade Center, which provides instructors visibility and access to all items that need to be graded, including blogs, journals, wikis, and discussion board activity;

Blackboard Connect for Learn, which allows teachers to send students course-related text-message notifications; and

Timed assessment enhancement, which lets the instructor set time limits on tests and quizzes, and auto-submit.

Other capabilities of CourseSites include: collaborating with students in a live, online classroom, using chat, audio, video, interactive whiteboard, application and desktop sharing, and breakout rooms; course structure templates, such as lecture, guided discussion, or social learning; mash-ups, which integrate youtube.com, slideshare.com and flickr.com; the ability to create five course Web sites for free; functionality to select a personalized URL; themes that let teachers customize the look and feel of courses; and the option to log in through Facebook or Twitter.